Is using JavaScript to render translations safe for International SEO?

[SixSpokeMedia64]

Hello World!

Background: I am evaluating a tool/service that a company wants to use for managing the translated versions of their international/multi-lingual websites: https://www.transifex.com/product/transifexlive/

Transifex is asking webmaster to "simply add a snippet of JavaScript" to their website(s); the approved translations are added by the business in the back-end; and the translated sites are made live with the click of a button (on/to the proper ccTLD, sub-domain, or sub-directory, which is specified).

CONCERN: Even though I know Google reads JavaScript for crawling and ranking,
I am concerned because I see the "English text" when I view the source-code on the "German site", and I wonder if this is really acceptable?

QUESTION: Is a service like this (such as Transifex using JavaScript to render translations client-side) safe for indexing and ranking for my clients' international search engine visibility, especially via Google?

Thank you!

[Aleyda]

Hi Edward,

It's not recommended to rely on Google capacity "processing" scripts to show any key content on your site, in this case, additional language or country versions. If the information shown in the HTML code and the Google cache version of the pages is not the relevant one -and only one is shown the whole time for example- then it's not being correctly rendered. You can also verify this with the "Fetch as Googlebot" functionality from the Google Search Console.

If you want to make sure that each of your language/country versions are really accessible then the best is to make sure each piece of content is published as text in their own specific HTMLs whether in ccTLDs, subdirectories or subdomains for country versions or also, subdirectories or subdomains for language versions; making sure to use the relevant terms and topics for each language/country audiences (which might not necessarily be the literal translations among them, so a unique keyword research, content writing and optimization process by a native speaker is required)

Thanks!

[Mobilio]

No. Because HTML text will be same and altered with JS.

And bots using HTML text for indexing and ranking.

[SixSpokeMedia64]

OKay, so if we properly use hreflang tags, and link sites each other, based on the hreflang tag protocol, then is this acceptable and safe to use JavaScript to render translations client-side, specifically for the Google search engine?

[Mobilio]

TL;DR - NO.

There are few ways for translation and they're described there:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

You also must implement hreflang and link sites each other.